


Danger in the Winter Woods!

by laurus_nobilis



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Mission Fic, Nonnies Made Me Do It, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Snowed In, Truth Serum, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 00:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14437494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/pseuds/laurus_nobilis
Summary: During a mission in a small town near the mountains, Sam and Bucky have to deal with wild animals, terrible weather, HYDRA's increasingly ridiculous plans - and worst of all, feelings. (Or: the one where Sam's life is a lot like a pulp serial.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In spite of my great timing to post this fic, the intention when I started writing it almost nine months ago was to set it in a vague near future where Thanos has been defeated and everyone's friends again. Apart from that, it's canon compliant up to Black Panther.
> 
> I know there are a lot of chapters for a fic this length; I was aiming for the cliffhanger-y appeal of serials, even if the end result is short enough to read in one sitting.
> 
> Huge thanks to sadisticsparkle and FujurPreux for the endless brainstorming sessions, and to all the f_fa nonnies who encouraged me to finish!

It was supposed to be an easy job. All they had to do was drop into some abandoned labs, find a few old files and get out. No trouble at all, with Bucky's intel and Sam's wings. It was in a nice touristy location, too, a ski center all the way down in southwest Argentina. Apparently they had great chocolate.

Sam knew exactly what to think about things that sounded too good to be true.

"Bet you they're not abandoned at all."

Bucky snorted.

"Next thing you're gonna bet the Earth is round," he said. "Just send Redwing so we can be sure how bad it is."

"Gotta love your paranoia, man," Sam muttered. But he didn't exactly disagree. "Okay, this'll take a while."

Sure, Redwing was fast, but he had some distance to cover. This was the closest they could get to the target without flying, and they were still laying low for now. No need to call for unnecessary attention just yet. So here they were, sitting on a stony beach while Redwing made his way to the island in front of them. Because _of course_ the labs in question were on one of the lake's islands, like they were in some James Bond movie. It was a weird story all around. Back in the late '40s, some guy had convinced the local government that he knew how to control nuclear fusion. They'd built him labs and potential reactors here, which were soon abandonded a few years later when it turned out the project didn't work at all. According to their intel, the guy was just a good old-fashioned scammer, nothing to do with HYDRA. But abandonded labs on an island in what, back in the day, was pretty much the middle of nowhere? That was HYDRA catnip. It hadn't taken them long to set up base there. They were supposed to have left in turn a few decades ago, but - well. There was only one way to find out exactly how gone they really were, and that was waiting for Redwing to get a good look.

On the plus side, as far as places to sit and wait went, this one was pretty nice. The weather was cold but sunny, and there were more people on the beach than Sam would have expected with this wind. Some must have been locals soaking in every bit of sun they could. Others were obvious tourists, dressed in neon-colored snowsuits even though there was no snow at all. He wasn't complaining, though. All that out of place ski gear made his goggles inconspicuous. Just another tourist, nothing to see here at all. Even if anyone had actually paid enough attention to spot Redwing, they must have thought they were playing with a drone or something. No one seemed the least bit curious about them. Small blessings.

At some point during the wait, Bucky took out a worn-looking notebook from his backpack and started scribbling something. Sam made a brave effort to respect his privacy for about half a minute. Then he gave up.

"What's that for?" he asked. Worst case scenario, Bucky told him to mind his own business. He could deal with that. But he was both bored and curious so it was worth a try.

"Just notes about what happened during the day. Well, more like didn't happen yet, today," he replied, in a surprising good mood. "Time, locations, all the boring stuff."

"So, no 'dear diary, today I spent all morning with the dreamiest guy'?"

"You wish," he said good-naturedly. "Hey, Redwing keeps logs of his readings, right?"

"Yeah. That's all stored, we can transcribe it later. Nothing new so far, anyway. He's still on the move." Sam paused and narrowed his eyes, not that Bucky could tell while he still had his goggles on. "That _is_ all in code, right?"

"Nope. It's just plain old English so when the Nazis find it they can read how to pass the three tests. Obviously."

"... you watched Last Crusade?"

"Of course I watched Last Crusade, who do you take me for? Steve?"

Sam snorted in amusement at that, and for the time being it seemed to be enough conversation. They stayed in comfortable silence a few minutes until Bucky spoke again.

"I like to keep things in writing," he said, without looking up from his notes. Sam lifted his hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Didn't ask."

"Didn't have to. I could hear you wondering from here."

"Does it help?" he asked. If Bucky was in a sharing mood, he might as well take the opportunity.

"It did, at first." He shrugged. "Dunno if it still makes a difference. I'm just used to it."

Sam had no idea of what to say to that. Fortunately, Redwing saved the day before things got too awkward.

"I've got a reading. He's in." He took a moment to pay attention to the info, and rolled his eyes behind the goggles. Nothing surprising here. "Guess what. We were right."

"How many?" Bucky sighed.

"At least a dozen people, and that's on Redwing's field of vision right now. I'll get him to make a quick round and then bring him back, there's too much risk of getting spotted."

Bucky cursed under his breath, but didn't interrupt him. It didn't take long until Redwing was safely out of sight from the labs again. How much info he'd managed to get in that short time remained to be seen, but getting out unnoticed was the priority. Sam took off his goggles and cracked his neck, tired.

"Well," he said, "nothing we can do until he gets back, now. Wanna get some food?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

There was a small restaurant right there on the beach. Sam picked a table next to one of the windows, more to enjoy the landscape than to keep an eye on Redwing. He knew how long it'd take until he got back, he just needed to return to the beach in time to get him. Bucky, predictably, sat down facing the door and with his back to the wall. Old habits died hard, Sam guessed. But it wasn't anything a stranger would notice. 

The issue of the arm, though, that was a little more complex. There was no excuse to wear gloves indoors, which meant Bucky had to use that weird hologram thing he'd got for this kind of situation. For most people, it'd be indistinguishable from actual flesh and skin. For Sam, who knew the way his arm really looked like, it was an uncanny valley nightmare. He hadn't asked Bucky how he felt about it, but suspected he didn't particularly like it either. He only ever turned it on when it was necessary to keep cover.

Still, it was pretty impressive how natural he made it all look. The details were obvious to Sam because he already knew about them. Otherwise he'd just blend in with the tourist crowd. He even flirted in bad Spanish with the waitress who took their order.

"You're gonna give that poor woman a heart attack."

"I'm just being polite," Bucky defended himself. "Besides, we don't have much time, so we better get our meal soon."

Sam couldn't hold back a snort.

"You're a terrible person."

"Aw, come on. I just made someone's day."

"Oh, and modest, too."

Bucky's face was the picture of innocence. It might even have fooled people who didn't know him so well. Sam just shook his head and tried to look disapproving, but the grin gave it away. It was almost embarrassing how much this jerk could make him laugh. Then again, they might as well have some fun now that they could. It wasn't as if they could discuss their plans in public, so small talk and eating it was. Once Redwing got back with new info, they'd have plenty of time for serious work without a break, Sam was sure of that. Granted, it was just a quick meal in the nearest place they found, it wasn't as if they were trying any local delicacies or something like that. But it was nice, and by now they'd been working together for long enough that they honestly enjoyed each other's company.

Even if it sometimes was a little distracting. Like right now. It was one of those moments when Sam had to try very hard not to stare, because Bucky was doing the thing with the hair again. The one from the freaking _movies_.

It was incredibly shallow, Sam knew, but he was still getting used to the new haircut. Not the part where the shorter hair made him look really hot - that wasn't a surprise. He'd seen the photos, after all. But that was just the thing. It made him look more... well. More like Bucky Barnes. Maybe that was why he had taken so long to change his look, and it meant that now he felt more comfortable with himself. Or maybe Sam was overanalyzing to distract himself because this was a very bad time for unresolved sexual tension. That made sense, too.

Eventually, it was time to go get Redwing. A little early, perhaps, but waiting for him a few minutes was better than the alternative. It looked like getting the check was going to take about forever, so he left Bucky to pay and returned to the beach. As it turned out, he'd timed it right. Redwing wasn't there yet but he was close enough that Sam could see him quickly approaching. It took a surprising amount of willpower not to start checking out the records right then and there. After a whole morning of only waiting, Sam was itching for something - _anything_ \- to do. That was a pretty bad idea, though. He put everything away before he talked himself into not waiting.

Bucky arrived a moment later. He seemed to about as eager to get this over with as Sam was, because he didn't make any small talk.

"Ready?" 

"Yeah, all done," said Sam. "Let's go back to the hotel and see what we're dealing with."

* * *

They were staying within walking distance of the beach. It was a cheap, tiny hotel, chosen to go with their "clueless backpackers" cover. An actual hostel would have made more sense, but that had been a no-go. Bucky had refused point blank to share a room with a bunch of strangers. Sam couldn't blame him, all things considered, and in any case he wasn't going to complain about getting a bit more comfort and privacy. Maybe they were slightly picky clueless backpackers. They'd ended up in small a room with twin beds, an ancient TV and a view of the old pines behind the building. As far as places to stay while on a mission went, it wasn't too bad. 

"All right," he sighed, dropping himself on one of the beds, "let's see what we got here."

"How bad is it?"

"We don't know that yet. At least give me a minute to set things up."

Bucky grumbled a little in protest, but didn't interrupt him any further. With that out of the way, it didn't take long to get all the info into a laptop, where they could both take a look at it more comfortably. Apart from the raw data, there was some footage Redwing had captured. It wasn't very good, since Sam's directions at the time had been mostly guesswork - there were a lot of treetops in the video - but it would at least give them an idea of what was going on.

The buildings did look abandoned from the outside, which made sense. The island wasn't exactly inaccesible. There had been tours until only a few years earlier, and even now, anyone with a boat or kayak could get there. Any change would have been noticed, and soon. So there were huge, run-down blocks of concrete that almost looked like they hadn't been touched since the fifties. The only thing that seemed to be new was the roof of one of the buildings. Judging from the size and the lack of windows, that one had once been the main reactor.

"Great, no visuals at all," Bucky muttered. "Who knows what they're doing in there."

"Calm down. There's another building, we might still get a hint."

The second lab did have windows. The footage had a weird angle, but they could see some of what was happening indoors. However, in spite of Sam's attempt at optimism, the truth was that it was very hard to tell what was going on. But at least they cousee that they had a proper, working lab. They had enough goons to cause trouble. And there was a guy in a lab coat who looked like he was in charge, walking from table to table as if checking the others' work. Sam was about to say some of this out loud, but the look on Bucky's face when he turned around to talk to him stopped him. He was frowning slightly, almost distant.

"Buck?" he asked. "Anything familiar?"

"I'm not sure," Bucky replied, still staring at the video. "I must have seen places like this a thousand times. I think it's just... generic HYDRA-ness."

"All the specifics must be in the other building." He went back a little, rewatched a few parts, trying to find something useful, but there was no such luck. "There's gotta be some way to get at least a hint. With all those guards around, we can't jump in blind."

Bucky nodded and pulled out his phone.

"It's a long shot, but there might be something in the local newspapers. You know, any sign of weirdness."

"That could be anything."

"Yeah. Including HYDRA."

It _was_ a long shot, but it was also all they had for the moment. No reason not to try. Sam took his own phone and started browsing. Even if his Spanish was kind of rusty, he trusted that it was still good enough to get the gist of headlines. Once he found the _really_ local news, he figured they might have some luck after all. The town was small enough that its news sites included stuff like traffic accidents, petty theft and particularly colorful brawls between neighbours. There was even some nonsense about potential sightings of a Nessie-like creature in the lake, which was apparently some kind of old local urban legend. If HYDRA was doing anything remotely noticeable, there had to be a lead here somewhere. They just had to figure out which one it was.

"Looks like there's been a few small forest fires," Sam said after a while. "Weird for this season, but it could be people trying to collect timber. Someone saw a mountain lion close to town... You got anything else?"

"Not much. A couple of freak power outages, that could be them."

"Hmm. All of these could have perfectly reasonable explanations."

"True. But that's how they do things. We _know_ they're up to something, look at those labs. Eventually they're going to slip up, and we'll notice."

Bucky was starting to sound like he was about to work himself up any moment now. Better to interrupt in time, Sam thought.

"We are still on schedule," he pointed out. "We can stick around a few days. Follow these leads, keep an eye out."

"Yeah, that could work. I really don't want to go back empty handed."

"Look, we're already here. If we go home now it'd be a waste of time and resources. Staying just make sense. Worst case scenario, at least we get more intel." He could have gone on, but Bucky had somehow switched from looking like he wanted to punch a wall to watching him in amusement. It was getting weird. "What?"

"Just wondering how you managed to make being a stubborn ass sound reasonable."

"Lots of practice. Also, I'm right."

"Wasn't arguing that," Bucky said. He still had that grin, though. "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

* * *

The first step to blend in with the tourist crowd was not staying in the hotel all day. It was a decent way to start following their few leads, too. Redwing had done his best already, but since doing things the old-fashioned way worked better for this next part, it was time to take a proper look of the place. Intel and satellite maps weren't everything, after all. Sam had grabbed a bunch of leaflets from the hotel's welcome desk, mostly for appearances' sake, and now at least he had something to do while they waited for the bus. 

"Did you know there's an ice bar?" he asked. Bucky didn't deign that with an answer, but his face was priceless all on its own. "Oh, hey, this might actually be useful. Trekking routes."

That did catch Bucky's attention. He leaned closer to look at the map. It wasn't very detailed, but it showed several different paths into the woods of the National Park that surrounded the town. Even though they couldn't talk about it openly right there in the street, Sam was sure that they'd both reached more or less the same conclusions. If they needed to check out the sites of those fires they'd read about, this could be a good way to get a head start without arising suspicion. They'd have to look closer at the locations and see how much overlap there was. Besides, his pessimistic side reminded him, these could become escape routes if push came to shove.

"I'd bet there aren't many people around this time of year," Bucky mused. "Looks like we've got a plan, if there's nothing interesting downtown."

Sam nodded his agreement, but there wasn't time for a proper reply: the bus finally arrived and they found themselves surrounded by people. It didn't take long to get downtown and, as it turned out, it _was_ interesting. Just not in a very HYDRA-like way.

The main street had stores clearly aimed at tourism, with everything from souvenirs to winter clothes. There was a ridiculous amount of chocolate stores and ice cream parlors in only a couple of blocks, and yet there were long lines of people in all of them. The sidewalks were crowded, which could be an advantage if they ever needed to blend in and make a quick getaway. Visitors were roughly divided into three main groups: families, backpackers, and hordes of teenagers. Given that it was early afternoon on a sunny day, Sam figured that the ones who'd come for the ski center factor where still actually skiing. There were also a few stray dogs around, but they were friendly enough, and some of the stores even left some food and water for them at their entrance. All in all, there was nothing suspicious. Well, except the creepy fully-dressed mannequins used to advertise ski clothes rentals, maybe, but other than looking like something out of a B-movie there didn't seem to be anything actually _wrong_ with those.

It soon became clear that there wasn't much else to see, so they moved to the side streets. Just one block away, the stores had pretty much disappeared, along with most of the crowd. Now they faced green parks, a row of pines to block the wind and, across the street, a promenade along the lake's shore. Bucky headed in that direction, and Sam saw no reason not to humor him.

"So, no more leads here. What now? It's still early."

"Yeah, but not early enough to get into the woods," Bucky sighed. "If there _is_ something shady going on, I don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere after dark. The least we can do is not give them an easy target."

That was a far more reasonable answer than Sam had expected. He'd been almost sure that he was about to get dragged to the mountains right then and there. If Bucky was in the mood for some common sense, he might as well make the most of it.

"Tomorrow morning, then," he said. "And that gives us some R&R time. You know, if you're capable of that."

"I swear, if you bring up that bar again--"

"Relax, man," Sam laughed. "I was thinking hot chocolate."

"... oh. Yeah. That'd be nice."

"See? It'll be just like vacation."

Even as he said it, he wasn't sure if letting himself think that way was a great idea or a terrible one. Maybe both at the same time.


	2. Chapter 2

The plan was simple: they'd start with the paths nearest to town, carrying only basic gear and weapons so they could still pass as tourists at first glance, and then keep moving further until they found a lead. This meant that their first choice was very easy to access, with a lot of informative signage and everything. It might have been full of people at other times of the year. Still, in the middle of winter and this early in the morning, it was just the two of them. If Sam had been any kind of reasonable person he wouldn't be here either. It was _really_ cold, here in the forest. At least the trees stopped the wind a little. Besides, they had remembered to bring a thermos full of hot coffee, which improved Sam's mood considerably.

Bucky wasn't very talkative that morning, but not in a particularly grumpy way, he thought. He just seemed to be focused on their surroundings. Of course, Sam was doing his own share of paying attention, but he wasn't the one with enhanced senses. It was better to just let him work. After a couple of uneventful hours, they found themselves at the top of a small hill.

"Nice view," said Sam. He took a sip of the coffee and passed it to Bucky, who nodded, still looking around with his sniper face on.

"Yeah. Great vantage point. I'm surprised they don't have any kind of lookout here. I mean, _I_ would." 

"Maybe they don't need a vantage point. Think about it," he went on, when Bucky gave him a quizzical look. "We came here with intel and everything, and still thought there was a good chance that the labs were abandoned. They've got no reason to expect enemies or spies. Hell, they probably think nobody knows they're here."

"It's still stupid," Bucky muttered. Then he sighed. "But it's HYDRA. Overconfidence is kind of their thing."

"And you'd have a guy on every tree, I know, I know."

Whatever Bucky had been about to reply never left his lips. He fixed his eyes on some point behind Sam and went very, very still. Sam took his cue and turned around slowly, without any sudden movements.

There wasn't a HYDRA goon behind him. There was a freaking mountain lion. A huge one, too. It looked like they'd found their lead, at last - he was no expert on local wildlife, but he was pretty sure that those didn't naturally come in this size. Plus, the red eyes were kind of a giveaway. For now, it was standing just as still as they were, but that might not last long. If it tried to pounce on them, Bucky would do the predictable thing and shoot it, and they'd lose their only clue so far.

There was only one sensible course of action. Sam grabbed Bucky by the waist, spread his wings and jumped up. The stupid cat almost got one of his boots, but he'd been faster.

"What-- little warning next time?"

"There wasn't time to argue." He landed on a nearby rock ledge, wide enough to give them room to move comfortably. No reason to carry a supersoldier's worth of weight if it wasn't absolutely necessary, after all. They were out of the mountain lion's reach but they could still see it from there. Bucky grumbled something unintelligible, which was about as close as admitting defeat as he ever got.

"What the hell did they do to it?" Sam wondered, almost to himself. It was still down there, pacing and ocassionally looking up at them.

"Great," Bucky muttered. "Enhanced wild animals. Just what we needed."

Sam was about to say that they didn't _know_ if it was enhanced, so of course that was when the lion took impulse and jumped high enough to reach the ledge they were standing on. It should have been an impossible leap, but this wasn't the time to dwell on that. He rolled out of the way until he almost hit the rock wall behind him. There wasn't a lot of room left. If he needed to move again, he'd have to take off. But it didn't come to that. 

Bucky jumped in front of him, arm first. There was a metallic clang when the beast tried and failed to sink its teeth into it. That surprised it enough to let Bucky shake it off before it managed to get a proper grip. It rolled all the way down to the path they had come from and stayed there, lying on the ground.

"Please tell me you didn't kill our only lead."

"I doubt it. That thing was strong."

"Good," said Sam. "Then let's track it."

He glided down, carrying Bucky with him, and landed at a reasonable distance. Just because the lion _looked_ unconscious didn't mean it actually was. It didn't stir as they approached. On closer look, it was still breathing. That was good news. They hadn't expected the need to put tracking devices on animals, but it was doable. All Sam had to do was improvise a collar. He secured it around the beast's neck while Bucky held it down. Then he turned the device on and made sure that Redwing was getting the signal. With any luck, it'd lead them to its handlers.

"There. Now let's get out of here before it wakes up."

Bucky nodded.

"We've got other places to look at, anyway," he said. "Let's move."

* * *

They spent the following several hours walking down the paths they'd set out to check that day. Every once in a while, Sam checked the signal from the tracker they'd left on the mountain lion. It was moving around enough so they could tell that it was still alive, which was a relief, but it didn't seem to be doing anything interesting yet. So, for the time being, they stuck to their original plan. Things were pretty uneventful for a while, including during their short lunch break, which was more than Sam had expected. 

Still, he sent Redwing out for a look around while they ate their sandwiches. No such thing as being too careful. He brought the drone back once they were ready to go but, instead of turning him off right away, had him poke Bucky's shoulder a bit just because he could. That didn't get the expected death glare reaction, though. On the contrary. Bucky just _grinned_. He even patted Redwing's head.

"Aw. You like him."

"Yeah, well," he muttered, as if he'd been caught off-guard. Which he was, and it was a fact that Sam would cherish forever. "When he inevitably gains sentience, I wanna be on his good side."

Sam didn't really know how to take that. On the one hand, Bucky was good at deadpan sarcasm, and most normal people would just take that as an obvious joke. On the other hand, Vision. Vision was a thing that happened.

"That's right," he said instead of overthinking it. "Be nice to my little friend."

"Buy me a drink first."

Before Sam could get himself into another mental round of 'how much do we actually mean this', one of Redwing's signals caught his attention.

"Looks like it's moving again," he said. "Deeper into the forest."

"Finally." Bucky stood up and grabbed his things like nothing had happened. "Maybe it'll lead us somewhere useful."

"It's gonna be hard to reach, I can tell you that much. It's not like we can follow the paths. But I think I can come up with a shortcut, give me a sec."

Bucky's only reply was a resigned grunt. Sam was right, though, and it didn't take him long to come up with a workable route. Now they just had to make their way through the trees and hope for the best.

As it turned out, walking through the forest was more difficult than it seemed. The terrain was very irregular, but they both had plenty of experience with that, so that part wasn't too bad. The real problem was that the bamboo-like bushes among the trees were a lot thicker than what it looked like from the path. It was slowing them down quite a lot, and it took a long time of Bucky pushing through the plants and Sam navigating until they caught up with the mountain lion.

And then they discovered that HYDRA had got there first.

They were being really loud, so Sam and Bucky heard them with enough time to stop while they were still among the bushes and avoid bumping right into them. Unfortunately, the reason they were being so loud in the first place was that there were four heavily armed goons trying to drop an electrified net on a very angry mountain lion.

He exchanged a glance with Bucky, who nodded, all sharp focus. They didn't need a lot of planning for this one: show up from different flanks and get the drop on them. The lion was already giving them all the distraction they needed. Sam moved to a position where he could see without being seen and waited for a good moment to strike. For a change, HYDRA being efficient turned out to be an advantage. It wasn't long until they got the net over the still struggling animal. That also caught the men's attention enough to give Sam an opening. He lifted off the ground, just high enough to get out of the bushes and land with a nice kick to one of the goons' back. He turned and punched the second one in the face before he had time to react. Bucky had done more or less the same with the other two, and now he was aiming his rifle in their general direction.

"Hello, guys," Sam said. "Time for no sudden movements and telling us all your plans."

The oldest of them, probably the one in charge, tried to sit up as he finally recovered his breath.

"Hail--"

"Don't bother," he interrupted. "You don't wanna piss off my friend here."

Bucky didn't say anything, or move at all. He only glared. The strong and silent thing had been weird, at first, but by now Sam had learned to roll with it. Mostly because it was so useful. Whether they'd seen him in action before or just heard the stories, HYDRA goons suddenly became very risk-averse when the possibility of dealing with an angry Winter Soldier arose.

No one replied just yet, but Sam wasn't expecting them to. He knew how these things went. This was the part where they shot nervous looks at each other and considered what to do. Bucky kept aiming at them in unnerving silence, Sam had already disarmed two of them, and it was all going pretty well until the mountain lion realized no one was paying attention to it anymore.

Either the net wasn't _that_ strong, electrified and all, or the beast was even angrier than they'd thought. It had finally struggled enough to tear free and pounced on the HYDRA guy who was closest. All Sam coud do was jump out of the way with a surprised curse. That unlucky bastard was beyond help now, anyway. The two who were already disarmed suddenly grew a survival instinct and ran into the woods in the confusion. Goon Number Four, however, was a smart one. He kicked the now empty net in Bucky's general direction. Bucky sounded more surprised and angry than hurt, and in any other circumstances Sam would have taken that as a cue to focus on the enemy. But right now they had a freaking mountain lion on the loose so getting him out of that net was the priority.

"What the hell are you doing?" he growled, the ungrateful jerk. His metal arm was hanging limply at his side. Sam made a point of not letting his gear touch the net. Whatever it was that it did to electronics, he wasn't risking it.

There wasn't time to investigate, anyway. The lion was done with its snack of choice. The good news was that Sam saw it coming. This time, he jumped on purpose - not just out of its way, but _up_. He landed with a solid kick right to the back of its neck, which quickly took it out of commission. Chances were that wouldn't last more than a few minutes, but he'd take what he could get.

Problem was, as soon as Sam got back on his feet, he had a gun pointed at his own head. Well. Shit. He risked a glance at Bucky, trying to get a read on him. He was still half tangled in that net but he'd stopped trying to get rid of it and was very still now, his expression unreadable. A 'no sudden moves' situation, then. Just great.

"Get over there," said the guy behind him.

Sam couldn't help himself.

"You know that thing's going to wake up any moment now, right?"

" _Move_."

Bucky was giving him his best 'don't be a wiseass' glare by now, so Sam bit back a snarky reply and did as he was told. At least this particular goon wasn't the gloating kind. He just took their guns and tied them up, back to back. Bucky was suspiciously compliant through the whole thing, enough to make Sam think he had some kind of plan. Now they just needed to figure out how to communicate. Since they couldn't see each other's faces, that was going to be a problem.

He _did_ , however, get a good view of the lion from this angle. And it was starting to get up again. He really hated being right so often.

"Uh, guys," he said, "it's moving."

The man gave Sam a dubious look, but then he did turn around to check if it was true. That moment of hesitation was a mistake. By the time he managed to land a shot, the beast was close enough to get the jump on him. They rolled out of Sam's field of view and then - then there was sudden silence.

"Well," Bucky said, " _that_ solves one problem."

"You sure it does? Because that thing's damn near unkillable. It must be, what, the third time it doesn't die?"

"It did now. Both of them."

"So, I guess now it's just a matter of getting out of this before the other two come back with friends."

"I can handle that. I was only waiting for a distraction."

True enough, Bucky started to move behind him. It wasn't exactly surprising; he carried about a billion weapons all the time, and the other guy had only taken their guns, so it wasn't out of the question that he'd still have something hidden.

"You better not be looking for an explosive," he half joked.

"I'm not going to blow us up, Wilson." He elbowed Sam in the kidney, which may or may not have been an accident. "I've got a knife in my boot."

It took a moment for Sam to let that sink in properly.

"Oh my God," he said, "you're not kidding."

"Nope."

"My life is an old timey pulp magazine."

"You're telling me," Bucky muttered.

There were a few more shakes, and then their bonds fell off. Sam stood up, stretched his arms, and picked up his gun before doing anything else. Then he approached the lion to retrieve the makeshift collar where they'd put the tracker. It wasn't a very pretty picture at all, and the two dead men didn't help, either.

"We've got to do something about these," he said. "Or it's going to be on the papers soon."

"Yeah. 'Illegal hunters killed by their prey'," Bucky said with a shrug. Right arm only, Sam noticed. He hoped that net hadn't messed up his metal arm too much. That'd be hard to fix. "Let's just take our things and get out of here."

"Well, you're the expert," said Sam. Bucky only rolled his eyes at him, without even a sad attempt at a glare. "Okay, okay. Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

By the time they arrived back at the hotel, they both looked like hell. They had a story ready just in case, but nobody in the lobby paid any attention to them anyway. It looked like exhausted backpackers in dire need of a shower where kind of a thing here.

"How's the arm?" asked Sam, the moment they got into their room.

"Working." Bucky took off his glove and twitched his fingers as evidence. "I think it was some kind of electric pulse."

"You sure it's all right?" he insisted. Bucky rolled his eyes at him.

"I'm _fine_. Go take a shower, you stink."

Sam could have argued with that, sure, or at least made it clear that he wasn't the only stinky person in the room at the moment, but he wasn't about to pass on the opportunity of showering first. He made it quick, because the hot water never lasted long and he wasn't that much of a jerk. But when he got out, he realized Bucky wasn't in a hurry at all. He'd opened the laptop and was staring intently at the footage they'd got from the island labs.

"Well, someone's being productive."

"I wish," Bucky muttered, without averting his eyes from the screen. "There's nothing useful here."

"I'm guessing we were right the first time around and all the fun stuff's going on in the other building." He looked at the video over Bucky's shoulder. "But at least we have an idea of what they're doing with that lab, now. They must be drugging animals with _something_."

"Yeah, but we don't know with what. Or even why. What's the plan here?"

He sounded much too frustrated, even for his usual standards. Sam frowned a little. Sure, it hadn't been the best of days, but it could have ended up a lot worse. There was something else going on here.

"Okay, spill it. What's with the extra grumpiness?"

For a second, it looked like Bucky was going to argue. Then, to his credit, he actually answered the question.

"I can't believe they managed to get me like that."

Oh. Well, that made sense. Facing just a few goons usually went a lot better for them.

"Don't feel bad about it, man. We didn't do anything wrong," said Sam, and he meant it. "They were prepared to capture a hulked out mountain lion."

Bucky's eyes widened and he sucked in a breath.

"... shit."

"What?" 

"I know you were joking," he said, "but I think you're right."

Sam didn't even need to ask him to clarify. Suddenly it all fell into place. They'd known for a long time that HYDRA had at least some version of the serum. Add radiation...

" _Shit_ ," he repeated. "That won't end well. And what does HYDRA want with monster animals, anyway? That's not their style."

"Depends on how they use them. I don't know, maybe there's a sudden panic about rabid dog attacks. Maybe someone important gets conveniently mauled by a grizzly." Bucky paused, just for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for his expression to go distant. "Maybe it's practice before they start doing it with people."

"We don't know that," said Sam, doing his best to sound calm even though he felt the sudden need to go punch someone in the face. "And we're going to stop them, anyway."

"... yeah. I know."

And maybe Bucky's grin right now was a little forced, but still - it was enough.

* * *

The two dead guys and the freaky mountain lion didn't make it to the local news the following day. HYDRA must have cleaned it up before a park ranger or some random hiker stumbled upon the bodies. It was one less problem for them, but Sam couldn't bring himself to feel too relieved about it. They had lost the surprise factor anyway. Those goons who'd escaped had definitely run back to their bosses. Still, there wasn't a lot they could do about it now, so they'd decided to more or less stick to their original plan. Just because HYDRA knew they were in town, it didn't mean they had to make themselves immediately obvious.

Besides, sticking with the clueless tourists act meant they got to act more or less normal, and Sam wasn't going to complain about that. They were having breakfast in the hotel's small but cozy dining room - not enough protein for his taste, but hey, the fruit jams were good. Bucky wasn't paying too much attention to the food, though. He was too busy staring through the window.

"Remember those news about the lake monster?" he said, out of nowhere. "What if that's why they're here? It'd fit with what we found out so far." 

Sam nearly choked on his juice. How could he drop a bomb like that so casually? And here he'd thought the possibility of all those seagulls going Hitchcock was bad enough.

"That's gotta be just an urban legend," he said. He _hoped_.

"Maybe." Bucky shrugged. "I'm just saying, we should keep an eye out."

"For a lake monster."

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing we've seen."

The worst part was, Sam couldn't even disagree with that. He rolled his eyes out of principle anyway. Then he had an idea, and took out one of the leaflets with maps he was carrying to use that day.

"So," he said, "want to start with the path we'd already picked, or do we change it for something near the lake? We can take Redwing."

"I doubt we're going to find a cryptid just because I mentioned it," Bucky replied. He was smiling, though. "But a walk on the beach sounds nice."

They did not, in fact, find a cryptid. It made sense, given that people had been looking for it for decades without success. Once upon a time, Sam realized, he would have thought it made sense because _lake monsters did not exist_. But by now he could come up with several more or less reasonable explanations why it might actually be there. Life had got weird.

He sent Redwing out for a round anyway, since they were already out here. There didn't seem to be any immediate weirdness going on. That could be either a good thing or a sign that HYDRA was being careful. He tried not to be too paranoid, though. Bucky had more than enough of that for both.

"Okay, you're quiet even for your standards," Sam said after a while, when he couldn't take all the brooding anymore. "What's up?"

"I don't like where this is going. I didn't expect it to be as easy as it sounded, but..." He trailed off and just ended the sentence with a shrug.

"We _can_ always call for backup, you know."

"And tell them what? That we still don't know what they're up to?" Bucky frowned at him. "At least wait and see what Redwing finds today."

Sam thought about it. That sounded a lot like stalling, but... truth be told, it wasn't such an outlandish idea. A couple of hours more weren't going to make that much of a difference, and they might still get some new info.

"All right," he said after a moment. "We'll watch the video, and then we decide. But don't just stand there sulking in the meantime, it's getting boring."

That didn't quite make Bucky laugh, but at least it got a snort out of him. It was already an improvement as far as Sam was concerned. Although he was still quiet after that, at least he had stopped looking as if he should have a cartoon cloud following him around. And Sam could make small talk for both of them. Bucky didn't seem to mind his running commentary.

Still, when Redwing returned, Bucky looked visibly relieved.

"Great. Let's go check that footage," he said. As much as he would have liked to stay on the beach, Sam had his priorities straight and didn't argue.

"I just hope there's no lake monster to be seen," he replied instead, and wasn't quite sure of how much of a joke that was.

* * *

Sam didn't have much hopes about Redwing's new video, but it somehow managed to be disappointing anyway. There was absolutely nothing they didn't know already. In fact, things seemed to be even quieter than the last time.

"I guess they're being extra careful," he grumbled. "Makes sense. They know we're here."

" _Good_. Let them worry."

Okay. Sam knew that tone, and it never brought anything good. Bucky getting angry in the heat of the moment was one thing. Bucky letting his slow, simmering rage build up for days was considerably more difficult to deal with. He had only noticed it the day before, but who knew? The guy had a pretty great poker face. It was the fact that it was starting to crack that made Sam's mental alarms go off.

"That works better when it's not a bluff," he tried to joke. It didn't work, so he went for a different angle. "We need a plan."

"Sure," Bucky replied. "Get on a boat, inflitrate the labs, blow it all to hell."

Sam stared at him, unimpressed. To his credit, Bucky made a good effort trying to hold his gaze. Then he just sighed and turned back towards the screen.

"Fine. Worth a try," he said. "Can we watch the videos again? There's gotta be something we're missing."

It wasn't as if they had anything better to do, so they replayed them. Over and over and over, until Sam was pretty sure he could picture them both with his eyes closed. There was still nothing useful. Even so, Bucky insisted on playing the first video - the one with the footage from inside the labs - yet one more time.

"It hasn't changed in the last five minutes, man. Let's take a break. We'll look at them later when my brain works again."

"No. There's something bugging me about this one."

It had since the very beginning, Sam recalled. That first watch had given Bucky the kind of weird, distant look he had when he half-remembered something. If repetition did help... He was about to ask about it when Bucky paused the video. It was a frame of the nerdy, boss-like guy walking among the worktables.

"That man." Bucky's eyes were practically glued to the screen. "The one with the bow tie. He was in D.C."

Well. _Shit_.

"... Buck?"

"I'm going to blow it all to hell."

"Right. _Still_ not a good idea."

"The triggers are gone," Bucky said, without looking away from the video. His tone was perfectly neutral. It didn't matter. By this point, Sam read him well enough to know when he'd messed up.

"That's not what I-- look. Bad wording, all right? What I'm trying to say is, you don't _have_ to do this. We can call for backup."

Bucky did look at him, this time, and Sam had the sinking feeling that he'd somehow managed to make things worse.

"Just how stupid do you think I am? I didn't get back on the field to face HYDRA again thinking I'd never find anyone familiar."

"Also not what I said," he insisted. "Maybe if you'd just listen for a second--"

"Then what _did_ you say?" Bucky interrupted him. "Because it sure sounded like--"

"I'm not going to let you blow this mission just 'cause you've got something to prove," Sam interrupted right back.

For a moment, he thought he might be getting punched. But then Bucky's entire posture seemed to deflate. He stood up from the bed - perhaps with a little more energy than strictly necessary, but Sam wasn't going to complain about small details right now. And then he took his coat.

Sam raised his eyebrows.

"What are you doing?"

"You're right," Bucky said, so softly he almost didn't hear it. "I-- I'm not thinking clearly. I need some air."

"And you expect me to just take your word that you won't go punch HYDRA in the face when I'm not looking."

Bucky shrugged.

"Send Redwing after me," he said. Sam didn't know what it said about himself that he was actually considering it. "I'm just going for a walk. Promise."

Sam thought about it for a moment. It might actually be a good idea. For both of them. He had to admit, he could use some alone time himself. This whole thing had him on edge.

"An hour," he agreed at last. Long enough to clear his head, but not to get on an island full of bad guys. "Or else I _am_ sending Redwing."

Bucky nodded his agreement and left without another word. He still looked angry, but he only took his usual minimum amount of weapons, so Sam was reasonably certain that he wasn't going to pull off anything stupid. The best he could do was try to relax. He took a long shower without worrying about using up all the hot water, for a change. He changed into comfortable clothes, had some snacks, and started to watch dubbed reruns of old Simpsons episodes on the room's TV. He still had about fifteen minutes or so before he needed to start worrying. A little more, to give Bucky some leeway to get back. He wasn't the kind of jerk who'd complain if he was one or two minutes late.

Then again, that became a moot point when he received the distress signal.

He cursed to himself and jumped up, hoping there was some way to trace the source. It turned out to be even better than that. As soon as he put on his goggles, he saw the moving dot with its changing GPS coordinates. The paranoid bastard had a tracker on him.

"Right," he muttered to himself. "Think."

He had no idea of what he was facing, but the signal meant that Bucky hadn't been able to deal with it on his own, so that was bad news already. He couldn't just jump into this unprepared. He put on the rest of his gear and grabbed some of Bucky's weapons for good measure. Chances were he was going to need them. The other problem was how to catch up with them. According to the GPS, they were still within the town's limits, and Sam couldn't just fly all over the place in plain sight if he wanted to get the jump on them. He'd have to take a detour.

There weren't many routes to choose from, anyway, so he stopped wasting his time and sneaked out of the room's window. His best shot was staying close to the trees for as long as he could. It did mean he couldn't follow the signal in a straight line, but he was fast, and they weren't very far. He'd make it. In fact, he was pretty close already when the tracker's signal died. They must have found it after all. Sam cursed under his breath and took the risk of gaining a little more altitude, taking in his surroundings. It was still a reasonably inhabited area. There were a few houses and their yards, several of those rental cabin places for tourists, a whole lot of trees, the beach. And then, not very far from him, a big construction site. That was the only option.

He zoomed across the road - and people _had_ to have seen him, then, but there was no choice - and landed behind some thick bushes. From here on he didn't even need the tracker. His usual gear was enough to scan for heat signatures nearby. There were only three: one in the inside of the building, probably Bucky himself, and two near the most obvious entrance. That made no sense to him. There was no way only a couple of guys had managed to capture him, so where were the rest? He'd have to be cautious, but there was no time to waste trying to solve mysteries, either. If he wanted any chance of success he needed to strike now. He could handle two HYDRA mooks.

The building's layout was simple enough that Sam didn't have a lot of choices for how to enter. This was clearly a time to use the air advantage. He took a small detour towards the unguarded back of the building, took flight from there, and landed right on top of the guards before they even realized they had company. There was no point wasting time with an actual fight, really. Just a little tasering while they were still surprised and they were both unconscious soon enough. He hoped he and Bucky would be out of reach by the time they woke up, but still, he took a few seconds to handcuff them just in case. Then he went into the construction site proper to look for heat signature number three.


	4. Chapter 4

He didn't have to go far to find Bucky. They'd chained him to one of the building's pillars - a support one, from the looks of it. Even if he was strong enough to break free, which was quite probable, he'd risk bringing down a good chunk of the building on top of himself. He hadn't been reckless enough to try. At least at first glance, he didn't look hurt aside from a few cuts and bruises. He _did_ look surprised to see Sam arriving, the asshole.

"I thought they'd broken the tracker," he said, and Sam forgave him just a little. He knelt down next to the pillar, grabbed a toolkit from his belt and went straight to work. There were about a billion high-tech padlocks to go through.

"It led me close enough. What happened?"

"Bunch of them got the drop on me. There wasn't a lot I could do." He frowned. "I think they drugged me, too. Not sure with what."

"Tranquilizers?" Sam asked. That's what he'd do, in any case, if he ever wanted to capture a supersoldier with a temper. 

"Doesn't feel like it. It was more about numbers, you know. And the surprise factor. I was distracted."

Now, _that_ was weird. Sam would never had imagined he'd admit something like that aloud, or hell, even to himself. But there were more urgent things to think about.

"I don't get it. They managed to capture you and then, what, left you here? With just two guards?"

Bucky grinned like a shark. Even knowing him as well as Sam did, it was still a little unnerving.

"Had to go patch themselves up," he said. "Really. You should've seen the other guys."

"No secret knives this time, huh?" Sam tried to joke. It fell a little flat, but Bucky didn't seem to mind. He just sat very still and let him work.

"It's there. Doesn't work on chains, though," he said. As if that needed explaining. Then, without any transition, he went on. "I _was_ going to come back, you know. I didn't mean to disappear."

"Figured as much when I got the distress signal, yeah. Don't worry about it."

"I just - I don't want you to think I'd lied to you."

"Dude," Sam said, struggling with a particularly stubborn lock, "this is _really_ not the time."

"I know, but I can't stop," he replied. That made Sam look up in confusion, just in time to see Bucky's eyes widen. "... oh. Oh, shit, it's truth serum. I hate truth serum."

"Hey. Calm down. It's just the two of us here." _So far_ , he didn't say, but he hurried a bit more.

"I'm not worried about intel, I'm worried about you getting into my head." There was a moment of awkward silence. "I fucking hate truth serum."

"What if you just stop talking?" Sam asked. It came out more snappish than he'd intended, but it was an honest question. Who knew how this stuff worked.

"I told you. Can't." He was breathing a little faster, now, not too much but enough for Sam to notice. He was getting nervous, and that was never a good sign. "We need to go."

"I'm working on it. Don't struggle."

"I mean _now_ ," Bucky insisted, but to his credit, he did make an effort not to move. "They haven't asked me anything yet, so that means they're _going to_. They'll be back any moment."

Probably with lots of pointy things, Sam thought. He tried not to let that distract him.

"I'm almost done."

"I need you to talk to me."

Sam nearly dropped his tools at that.

" _What_."

"Because of the serum." His exasperated tone was a relief, in a way. "It's already working, I'm going to keep babbling no matter what. So either we talk about something stupid or I'll be stuck telling you about whatever goes through my head and trust me, you do not want to know what's in there."

"Fine," Sam sighed. "Fine, I don't know, do you have a favorite movie or something?"

"Star Wars is kinda like Flash Gordon," said Bucky, and then started rambling about movie serials from the 1930s. Pretty boring, true, but much better for both of them than if he'd started making the natural thought associations that came with being captured by HYDRA and pumped full of drugs. Plus it gave Sam the time to finish with the last couple of padlocks.

"There," he said at last, quickly putting away his tools.

Bucky didn't waste any time either. He shook off the now loose chains as he stood up. He grabbed the guns that Sam had brought for him, clearly relieved, and then followed him out of the back of the building. 

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"Go grab our things and head for the hills. They're better prepared than we thought, we need to come up with a real strategy."

"Okay."

If they hadn't been in such a hurry, Sam would've stopped to stare at him. Instead, he just gave him a sideways glance while he kept walking.

"Really? No arguments?"

"It's a good plan. Better than any of my ideas lately," Bucky admitted. "... also. Thank you. For coming for me."

"You didn't really think I wouldn't, did you?" asked Sam, realizing a second too late that this wasn't a great time for rhetorical questions.

"I knew you'd _try_ , but when they got rid of the tracker I got kinda scared."

... well. Sam had a lot of reservations about asking Bucky questions while he was still under the effects of the serum, but steering the conversation a little away from admissions like that one certainly looked like the lesser of two evils right now. Besides, there was one thing that he did need to know. Time to play dumb and change the subject.

"So, where's the tracker you've inevitably got on _me_ , then?" he asked. "It can't be on my gear, or else it would only be useful part of the time, so what? Did you go through my clothes?"

"I've--" Bucky looked like he was making a great effort not to answer, but of course, it didn't work. All he could do was glare straight ahead while he spoke. "I've bugged all of your shoes."

" _All_ of them," Sam repeated in disbelief.

"Well, yeah. It's not like I can guess which ones you're going to wear. I'm not a psychic."

"You're a creep, that's what you are."

"I had one on me and you found me, didn't you? Can't argue with results. Besides, you say that, but you aren't really angry."

Sam raised his eyebrows.

"What, do you _want_ me to be angry?"

"No. I don't know. Just. You're confusing. How are you so--?" Bucky stopped mid-sentence, with genuine confusion, but the serum made him babble on anyway. "You treat me like you think I deserve to get nice things."

Great. So much for trying to avoid this kind of talk. Sam vaguely considered changing the subject again, but he couldn't leave him with that thought. It just wasn't right. He couldn't hold back a sigh.

"This might come as a shock to you, Barnes, but you're the only one who thinks you don't. In fact you're kind of overdue for nice things by now."

"But it makes no sense! I mean... I got it, when it was about the UN thing. You were doing what you thought was right. You're a good guy, that's what you do, doesn't mean you have to _like_ me. You would've done that for anyone if you thought they were being framed." He frowned. "But you're _still_ nice. About the small stuff."

"And?"

" _And_ I threw you off a helicarrier."

"Yeah. But you wouldn't do it again."

Bucky stared at him for a moment.

"You've got really low standards."

Sam managed to do the right thing and not laugh at a heartfelt confession under truth serum, but it took a lot of willpower. This conversation was starting to go places he'd much rather avoid while Bucky was still on drugs, anyway.

"Okay, enough soul-searching. Help me find a way back to the road."

"Sure." Bucky sounded clearly relieved. He turned to look at the thick mass of bushes blocking their way, and if he was avoiding his gaze apart from looking for an opening, well. Sam couldn't exactly blame him. "Hey, I think this might work."

It was a very narrow path, but they could improve it. They'd just have to break a few branches here and there. Sam let Bucky take care of that, since there was no need to cover himself in wild rose scratches when the guy with the metal arm was available. In the mean time, he took off his wings and tried his best to make them look as much like a regular backpack as possible.

"I need to get one of those hologram things for my gear," he muttered. "There's no way these won't get attention."

"Just walk around like you own the place."

"Right, and then no one will notice the mysteriously high-tech backpack."

"They'll be too busy looking at your face," Bucky said, and then, "oh _god_."

Sam did the only halfway decent thing he could given the circumstances: made his way to the small path through the bushes to avoid looking at Bucky's face, and tried to defuse the situation with a stupid joke.

"Wow, truth serum makes you a charmer."

"I'm _always_ a charmer." He sounded more offended than embarrassed, which in its own weird way was a relief. "I know you noticed all the flirting, you were flirting right back. Also I really don't want to have this conversation right now."

"Fair enough. Let's keep it shallow until... how long is that supposed to last, anyway?"

"It's hard to tell. Probably a couple of hours. At least."

"Great. That's going to be fun."

"It's already a lot more fun for you than for me, so how about you stop complaining."

That was a really good point. Sam thought about potential ways to get around it, as they walked down the road - and he did try to look as casual as possible, because that wasn't bad advice.

"What if _you_ pick the subject?" he asked. "Would that work?"

"Worth a try," Bucky said. "You know what, we need to come up a new plan anyway. By now they must have figured out that it's just us. We can't just show up on that island and pretend we're not outnumbered."

"That was a terrible plan in the first place. The element of surprise only goes so far."

"We could've managed. We're _good_. But that's a moot point now, I guess."

"We'll think of something," Sam reassured him, and he didn't add the part where maybe 'something' meant asking for help because he was pretty sure it would not go well. "First we need to figure out what to do right now. We can't stay this close to them."

Bucky nodded and hummed under his breath, thoughtful.

"So, this heading for the hills thing," he said. "Wanna make that literal?"

Sam raised his eyebrows.

"You want us to camp in the wilderness? In winter? Why, did you get nostalgic for the 40s?"

"Not _quite_ the wilderness," Bucky corrected. "There are mountain refuges up there. Empty, at this time of the year. We'd get a roof over our heads, somewhere to make a fire, and we've got good gear. It'll be way better than the 40s. And if we stay under the radar for a couple of days, we might fool them into thinking we're gone while we come up with a plan."

"Yeah, they might even think we're smart enough to go get back-up." Sam snorted. "All right. Sure, let's go camping."


	5. Chapter 5

The first thing they had to do was get back to the hotel and pick up the rest of their gear. Bucky went straight to their room to pack before he could risk talking to anyone. In the meantime, Sam took care of the check out, with an improvised story about how they'd changed plans at the last minute. Backpackers did that all the time, after all, so it shouldn't raise any suspicions. The sooner they were out of there, the better. These people really didn't need HYDRA to come knocking.

Bucky didn't take long, and then they hit the road. Again. On a better day, they could have taken a bus up to where the trekking path started proper, saving themselves a few miles. But they couldn't risk getting a drugged up Winter Soldier on public transport to spill his secrets to whoever happened to be around and understand English, so walking it was. At least that way they could see people coming and avoid them. It was moments like this that made Sam wish they had rented a car, cover story be damned.

"So, how do we notice when the serum wears off?" he asked as they made their way to the path. It was starting to get difficult to come up with new and safe conversation topics.

"No idea. I guess I'll have to start trying to tell lies."

"Like how you actually have a brain?"

"You know," Bucky started, and Sam could practically hear the wince in his voice, "I like that you make those stupid jokes. You don't treat me like I'm going to break. Or break _you_."

"If it makes you feel better, that wasn't a secret. I figured it out ages ago."

"Is that why you do it?"

"That and your face is hilarious. Hey, did anyone show you Grumpy Cat? You _need_ to see Grumpy Cat."

" _Everyone_ showed me Grumpy Cat."

Forget trying to be nice, it was impossible not to laugh at that. Especially when Bucky was making the exact right face. In fact, he realized, this could be just the thing to do until the serum's effect wore off. Petty bickering saving the day. Bucky caught on pretty fast, so that was fun. At least there weren't any more close calls with subjects neither of them wanted to deal with.

It took them a while, but they finally made it to the place where they left the main road and moved on to a narrower path. The entrance had a helpful signal with a map and some information about the length and difficulty of the trek ahead. Sam was starting to regret his life choices. He was in great shape for a normal human, but he _was_ a normal human, and he'd already had a long and exciting morning. Unfortunately for him, he was also quite aware that it was too soon to stop and eat some sandwiches.

As soon as they were sure they would be out of sight if for some reason other people were dumb enough to show up in this weather, Bucky gestured for him to stop anyway.

"All right, give me that backpack," he said. Sam raised an eyebrow, and Bucky rolled his eyes and went on before he could even reply. "Come on, your gear's heavy enough, and I can handle both. It's just practical, okay? I don't go around pretending I can fly so don't be stubborn and just--"

"I wasn't going to say no," he interrupted, far too amused all things considered. "It _is_ practical."

"... oh. It's just. You made a face."

"Of course I did." He finally managed to get rid of all the backpack's straps and passed it to Bucky. "Look at you being all nice."

Bucky was conveniently staring at the backpacks and tying them together when he replied.

"Is that so weird?"

"Well, you're usually stealthier about it."

That got Bucky to laugh, and Sam was surprised at just how much the reaction relieved him.

"It's been a long day."

They walked in silence for some time. Sam was so tired that it took him a while to realize that it was a good sign. If Bucky wasn't babbling anymore, maybe the serum was finally starting to lose its grip on him. He didn't risk trying to start a conversation, though, and anyway he was exhausted. It was better to focus just on walking. The path wasn't a difficult one to follow, but it was long. They had started late, too. Nightfall would definitely catch them still on the way. To make the whole thing even better, they still had about a third of the way to go when heavy grey clouds started gathering. Sam couldn't help but sigh in frustration.

"Great, now it looks like snow. I should just fly the rest of the way and wait for you there all warm and cozy," he joked.

"Okay."

Sam stopped to turn around and stare.

" _Seriously_? I wasn't really going to-- man, you're weird."

"I wouldn't mind," Bucky said, so earnest it was almost painful.

"I'm not going to just leave you here, Barnes, what the hell."

"Fine." He raised his hands in defeat. "Never mind. But we need to at least get some rest, before the weather gets worse."

"Okay. That's a compromise I can live with," said Sam. He took off his gear so he could rest his shoulders a few minutes, had some water, and then narrowed his eyes at Bucky as he realized something. "Huh. I think the serum's finally stopped working."

Bucky blinked in confusion.

"Why?"

"'Cause I know _you_ don't need to rest."

"... hm." Bucky seemed to consider this for a few moments. "It's a warm, sunny day? Hey, I think you're right. Great."

Lunch was quick and silent, just long enough to eat a couple of sandwiches. Then they quickly moved on. With any luck, they'd manage to avoid the worst of the weather if they kept a good pace.

"Can I ask you something?," said Sam, after they'd been walking for a while longer. "I mean, if it's really worn off."

"Sure," Bucky said. His face was still guarded, like he didn't know what to expect.

"How did I change your mind today? When you were leaving."

For a moment, Bucky didn't react. Then he snorted, clearly relieved. Sam vaguely wondered what he had thought he'd ask.

"You sounded like me."

" _Seriously_? That was it?"

"Believe it or not, I used to be the reasonable one. But I guess I do have something to prove now, huh." He laughed a little. "Damn. Don't tell Steve."

It sounded like a joke, but still. Sam had the feeling that there was more than a little truth somewhere in there.

"My lips are sealed."

* * *

By the time they made it to the refuge, it was already dark, and it had been snowing for a while. Sam would've been happy with any kind of roof over his head by that point. The sturdy, well-maintained cabin was a pleasant surprise. It was empty but open - just in case a couple of idiots like them walked up to it in the middle of winter, he figured - and they found dry firewood inside. Bucky wasted no time to get the fire going. In the meantime, Sam took a flashlight and explored the rest of the place. It was clean enough, except for the inevitable layer of dust. It was also pretty large. In summer, with a crowd of hikers and backpackers filling it, that'd work out just fine, but for only the two of them it was going to be too big and too cold. That reminded him that he'd have to take off his boots and at least the damp outer layer of his clothes, eventually, but it was an unpleasant thought. He'd better wait until they had a proper fire. On the plus side, the kitchen was stocked with plenty of non-perishables. 

"There's a lot of dry pasta," he announced. "Oh, and hey, cookies."

"Great, I'm starving," Bucky said. He was already peeling off layers of clothes. "Get over here. You need to change into something dry."

Sam grabbed some of the food, returned to where he'd left his backpack and changed clothes in what was probably record time. It wasn't long until they were both sitting in front of the fire in comfortable silence, munching on cookies after they'd quickly prepared and wolfed down the pasta. Perhaps they were a little closer to each other than strictly necessary, but Sam wasn't about to complain. As it turned out, this wasn't nearly as bad as he'd expected. It'd be nice to do this kind of thing for fun, he thought, just because they could and not because they had a bunch of HYDRA goons at their heels. And in better weather. Maybe they'd still get to do it someday, when this was all over. Maybe he'd ask.

Bucky brought him back to reality with an elbow to the ribs.

"You're thoughtful," he said. Sam shook his head.

"Just tired." 

"You know, I spent half the day on truth serum. The least you could do is be honest too."

Sam snorted at that, he couldn't he help it. Then he paused for a second. Finding the right wording wasn't being dishonest, he decided.

"We're going to need to talk, eventually," he said. "About... everything."

"Hm," Bucky mused, and now he was the one lost in thought. "And here I thought I'd managed not to say anything you didn't know already."

"True. But it's not like we ever talk about what I _did_ know, either."

Bucky didn't answer right away. He stared at the fire for a few moments. He was taking his sweet time, in fact, but after the day he'd had, Sam couldn't begrudge him that.

"I wouldn't even know where to start talking," he admitted at last. "I was kinda hoping it'd just be something like, I think you're hot, you think I'm hot, maybe we should do something about it."

"You know what," said Sam, "that works."

Then he leaned forwards to kiss him.

At first, Bucky didn't quite react, still surprised. Then he kissed back like he hadn't done this in decades, which was probably, depressingly true. Two seconds later, Bucky's hand was under Sam's shirt.

"So," Sam breathed, "I guess we're really doing this."

"I guess." Bucky grinned, mischievous. "Unless you're too tired."

"Oh, I'll show you tired," he said, and grabbed him by the shirt to kiss him again.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam woke up to the smell of instant coffee. It had to be still very early, judging from the light, but Bucky was already up and about. And making breakfast, which Sam was really grateful for. He had a stretch and decided to join the world of the living.

"Hey," he said. "Morning."

"Morning."

Bucky downright _beamed_ at him. It was... nice. Weird, but nice. He could get used to this, he thought. That probably wasn't the most reasonable thing to think after just one night of sex in the middle of a mission, but hey. He'd blame it on being barely awake. Damn, he really needed that coffee.

"Need any help with that?" he asked, dressing himself as fast as possible. Even with the fire going in the hearth, it was still cold.

"Nah. There's not a lot to do, it's all non-perishables here. Guess it's cookies again, and I've still got cereal bars in my backpack."

"Me too, I think."

He started to walk towards his own backpack, but stopped dead as soon as he passed next to one of the small windows. It must have snowed all night long. It had piled on so high that making a path out from the door was going to be near impossible.

"Uh," he said. "We have a problem."

"We're snowed in, yes. I noticed."

"You sound remarkably calm about that."

Bucky shrugged with one shoulder.

"Had worse." He picked up both mugs of coffee, walked up to Sam and offered him one. "We've got food, water and firewood, and we were planning to stay here for a few days anyway. We'll be fine."

Sam just grunted, not quite convinced. All right, so technically that was true. It didn't change anything. But there was still a difference between staying because he decided to do it and staying because he was stuck. Even his wings were useless if he couldn't get _out_. Some of this must have shown on his face, because Bucky was giving him a weird look. Sam raised his eyebrows at him.

"What?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Nah." He shook his head. "You're right, it'll be fine. I just need to find something to do."

"Oh." Bucky took a sip of his coffee, his expression perfectly bland. "Well, I've got a few ideas."

"Wow. You're lucky you're good looking, your lines are terrible."

"You just don't appreciate the classics."

He pulled off that bit of stupidity with such a straight face that Sam couldn't help but be the one who laughed first. And here he thought he was winning this round. At least he brought Bucky down with him.

"All right, but seriously," he said once they both managed to stop. "I need something to do the _rest_ of the time. We might as well do some serious planning, since we're stuck here."

Bucky nodded, now serious again. He was almost creepily good at switching back to work mode at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, that sounds fine. We shouldn't have any trouble. All that snow had to cover our tracks, and I doubt they'd even know to look for us here, anyway. But breakfast first. I've been up for a while already, you know."

"I noticed," said Sam, and then: "Okay, I've got to ask."

"What?" Bucky narrowed his eyes at him.

" _Did_ you write in your diary about it?"

He got an elbow to the ribs as a reward for that but, as Sam was delighted to notice, Bucky didn't actually say he hadn't.

* * *

The good news was that it didn't keep snowing during the day. At this point in the mission, "it's not actively getting worse" was more than Sam could ask for. 

The bad news was, the whole planning thing didn't seem to be going anywhere. They didn't have enough intel to make this work. Not that it would stop them from trying, because both of them could be stubborn assholes when they wanted to. They weren't going to waste their laptop's battery - not when they still had no idea of how long they'd be stuck here - so for the past few hours, they'd been working with a good old-fashioned paper map spread on the table. HYDRA's island of choice looked tiny, just a small speck of green in a corner of the huge lake.

"Well," Sam said, half joking, "I don't know about you, but if _I_ was hiding a lake monster I wouldn't keep it so close to the city. Look at all this free space."

"I don't know. Moving a lake monster is still easier than moving the labs." Bucky's tone was amused, too, but then he gave Sam an almost embarrassed look. "You think the whole cryptid thing is bullshit, don't you?"

"I work with supersoldiers and aliens and robots. I don't think it's that much of a stretch."

"But...?"

"But it sounds kind of weird," he admitted. "It's like saying maybe Bigfoot is real."

" _Thor_ is real."

"You say that like it _isn't_ weird," Sam replied. But his heart wasn't really into it. Something Bucky had said got him thinking. "Hm. You've got a point about the labs, you know."

"What are you thinking?"

"That it's a good time to call for backup. Hear me out," he went on, before Bucky could complain. "We can't make this work on our own, we know that much. But we've got more than enough to justify calling for help. We know there's an active HYDRA facility right next to an urban center, that they're doing experiments with animals, and that they know we're watching them. They're probably changing plans as we speak, but it'll take them some time to move or hide all their stuff. If we get a bunch of extra Avengers here in the next couple of days, we can still catch them."

Bucky grimaced at that, which was to be expected. But instead of arguing, he just rubbed his face with his hand and sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he said. " _Fine_. That's actually reasonable."

"We're still going to punch HYDRA in the face," Sam reassured him.

"I know."

He didn't elaborate, and Sam had to hold back the _but?_ that he really wanted to ask. The argument from the day before was still fresh in his mind, in spite of everything else that had happened afterwards. Getting on Bucky's nerves when he was making the effort to stay calm would be just dumb. There'd be better times to ask about the bow-tie guy in that video.

For the time being, however, Sam raided the kitchen while Bucky put away the maps and papers.

"There isn't a lot of variety," he announced after a few minutes. "We can choose between pasta with nothing, rice with nothing, or whatever this weird corn thing is. I guess it's to make cornbread or something? But we'd need other ingredients for that, it makes no sense."

Bucky looked up at the bag he was holding.

"Oh, hey, that's polenta. We can boil it."

"Boiled cornmeal? _Seriously_? That's gotta taste like gruel."

"Well, yeah, because we've got nothing to put in it. But it's great with cheese and sour cream. Or mushrooms... Damn, wouldn't I love to have mămăligă with stew right now. If I had the right stuff, I could--" He stopped in his ramblings and glared, because Sam just couldn't hold back his laughter anymore. "What?"

"I can't believe it," he panted. "All that time tracking you down, and _that's_ what you were doing. Learning grandma's recipes."

Bucky didn't even have the decency to look annoyed.

"I had a lot of free time." He shrugged. "I mean, I did some odd jobs here and there to get by, but... I had to find myself something to do."

"Must have been boring," Sam mused.

"Kind of. It wasn't so bad, really. At least I had the chance to get bored."

... and there it was, of course. The thing about these conversations was that you never knew when they were going to take a turn for the depressing. Sure, the 'because before they used to just put me back in the freezer' was left unsaid, but it was almost palpable.

"Well, you won't get bored now," he said. "You're making lunch."

"What? It's just boiling some water."

"Good, you won't even need your secret cooking abilities."

"They weren't secret," Bucky muttered. But he did stand up and started filling up one of the pots with water. "I just never mentioned them."

"And that's a huge betrayal. Really. I'm telling Steve."

"I hate you sometimes," he said, but his grin proved him wrong.

* * *

As much as Sam would've liked to postpone it forever, they did eventually have to make that call for backup. It was never fun, asking Cap for help. It felt a lot like admitting defeat. And he was always so reasonable about it, the asshole. At least it was a radio call and they didn't have to see his face. Sam kept the conversation short and to the point, laying out the intel they'd gathered and what the situation was. Steve agreed that they'd need to get reinforcements, because of course he did. 

"We'll be there as soon as possible," he said, his voice distorted by the radio. "Do you have a rendesvouz point in mind?"

"Yeah, I'll give you the coordinates," said Sam. "It'll take us at least one more day to get there, though. We're still snowed in."

"Then it gives us time to put up a proper team over here. Just keep in touch in the meantime."

"Yes, mom." He could practically hear Steve rolling his eyes, and it gave him a great deal of joy. "Seriously, though. We'll let you know if there's news."

"Okay. Good luck."

With their plans set up and the coordinates sent, they only had their own packing to worry about. It was easier to just have everything ready so they could leave as soon as the weather let them. Bucky was exercizing his ruthless streak by taking as many cookie packages as he could find.

"We've got to leave some food here, you know."

"I know," he replied, but didn't stop what he was doing. "We're leaving the _actual_ food. It's not like we can cook things in the middle of the forest, the fires would get attention."

Sam snorted, but he had to admit that wasn't such a bad idea. Their own food wasn't going to last for long and they certainly had no plans to go back to the city and get some. Studying the maps, they'd found a cross-country path that would leave them at a secluded point on the lake's shore. It was going to be a long and difficult trail in this weather. Still, they couldn't really do anything except wait and hope it didn't snow again during the night.

* * *

They left the refuge very early the next morning. The weather had been on their side and it hadn't snowed again during the night, so the reasonable thing to do was make the most of it. It proved to be the right choice, too. This was turning out to be just as difficult as they had expected. Sam had sent Redwing a little ahead, to avoid facing any surprise blocks on the path, but they still had to push through the snow itself. It felt like they'd already been walking forever, and they could still see the building not too far behind them. It would get better when they reached the forest, he told himself. At least the trees would stop the worst of the biting wind. 

Neither of them was feeling very talkative. It made sense, with the combination of the physical effort and the sound of the wind drowning out all the other noises anyway. But that didn't make it any less boring. Sam tried his best to focus on the info he was getting from Redwing and not on how slow their progress was. So far, so good. All was relatively clear ahead, and they could follow a more or less straight path for a while. They didn't stop at all while they were still out in the open, but that was all right with him - it was far too cold to stop moving. Still, when they finally reached the edge of the forest and paused to figure out their next move, it was a relief.

"How are we doing?" Bucky asked. Sam took a moment to check Redwing's readings.

"Still on track. The path should be around here somewhere, but we're never going to see it in this snow. We'll have to trust the GPS."

"Yeah, and hope there's solid ground under all this and we don't end up trying to walk on branches. Getting out of that kind of mess takes forever."

Sam snorted. 

"You're always such a ray of sunshine." He picked up one of the many branches broken by the weight of the snow and cleaned it up a bit so he could use it to test the ground ahead of him, because contrary to popular belief, he _did_ have common sense. "And that lack of trust is going to hurt Redwing's feelings, you know."

"Redwing knows I like him."

They went back to walking in silence for a while after that. As much as they both liked to act like this was just a walk in the park, they knew the whole mission was going to be in trouble if they didn't make it to the rendezvous point in time. It just made sense to stay focused on their task.

That's why it was such a surprise when Bucky, who was still opening the way through the snow a little ahead of him, started asking weird questions out of complete nowhere. 

"Are we still friends?"

"No, we had sex once and now I hate you."

"You know what I mean." Sam couldn't see Bucky's face from this angle, but his frown was practically audible. All right, then. No jokes about this stuff with the hundred-year-old caveman. In retrospect, he really should have known.

"You're saying you want to keep it casual," he said. "Is that it?"

"Sure. I can do casual."

"Okay," Sam replied. After all, he told himself, that's what he had been expecting all along. If it was what Bucky wanted, even better. No need to make things complicated.

"Okay," Bucky repeated.

Then he turned around to give him a little smile, and Sam was half regretting everything already.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam didn't have time to dwell on his life and choices. Soon enough, he had far more pressing matters to think about. The path was blocked. Of course, it wasn't as if they'd followed a straight line anymore once they got into the forest. There had already been plenty of minor obstacles that they either removed or went around before getting back on track. But this was a big one. There was a huge tree trunk on the way, holding in place an impressive amount of snow and debris. 

"I could move it," said Bucky, inspecting it closer. "But all of that will go with it. It's going to be a mess."

"We can always go over it. Let me take a look."

It was kind of a pain to get the wings out just for a few feet, but right now, Sam didn't see any other way. Trying to climb on that mess of soft snow and loose branches would not end well. He hovered just enough to get a good view of the other side. As it turned out, the trunk they'd thought was the main part of the block was not even the worst of it. It looked like there'd been an actual landslide this time.

"Bad news," he said, as he got back on the ground in defeat. "It's even worse on the other side."

Bucky groaned.

"Great. I hoped we could avoid long detours."

"We can still make it in time," Sam said. They'd be cutting it close if they didn't hurry, but he didn't say that part aloud. They both knew it already and someone had to be the optimist. "Let's take a look at those maps."

It took a little imagination to come up with a workable route. Most of the possibilities were either far too time-consuming or involved steep slopes that would be a terrible idea in this weather. The path they ended up choosing was still longer than Sam would have liked - they'd probably have to spend the night on the move, instead of setting up camp at the rendezvous point as they had originally planned. But they were out of options. This was still their best chance, so all they could do was start right now and move as fast as they could.

So that was how they ended up spending the rest of the day doing almost nothing but walk, with the bare minimum of stops. Even their meals were a few sad cereal bars so they wouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. By the time night inevitably caught them on the road, Sam was starting to miss even the bland boiled rice. Also, and more important, the darkness was slowing them down. Between the lack of visibility and the rough terrain, it took them more or less forever to reach the edge of the forest and come out on the lake's shore.

"Is this the place?" Bucky asked. He didn't seem to be too concerned about the answer, though, because he was already taking off his backpack.

Sam took a moment to check the coordinates and sighed. Of course. He shouldn't even be surprised.

"Nope. We're about half a mile off," he said. It made sense, considering the twists and turns they'd made while trying to find a workable path. Bucky shrugged.

"Close enough for tonight."

"Definitely," Sam agreed. "Let's get some sleep, we'll need to be up early tomorrow."

They set up camp very quickly. Since they still weren't going to risk a fire, all they could do was find a spot for their sleeping bags that wasn't too windy. They chose a big rock that provided enough cover, and there they sat to have some cookies - Sam had to admit Bucky had been right about bringing those after all - and finish their thermos of coffee. Then they called it a night. Trying to sleep on a stony beach wasn't at all comfortable, but Sam had had worse, and he was exhausted from the day's exercise. It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

* * *

It felt like only a few minutes had passed when he woke up to the loud, insistent cries of seagulls. It looked like it was just a little after dawn, but it was already light enough that Sam could see the outline of the frankly ridiculous amount of them that had gathered on the shore. He grabbed Bucky's shoulder and shook him awake. 

"What?" he groaned.

"That can't be normal seagull behavior."

"How should I know, you're the bird g--" Bucky's joke was cut short as soon as he looked up. "Oh, shit."

"We need to move."

They did their best to slip out of their sleeping bags and grab their stuff as stealthily as possible. The gulls drowned most of the inevitable sounds, and they didn't seem to be paying attention to them - for now. He exchanged a meaningful look with Bucky and they started to make their way towards the edge of the forest again. In this lighting, the trees might provide enough shadow for them to go unnoticed. For a very naive moment, Sam even thought they were going to make it.

Then the loud cries were joined by the sudden noise of far too many flapping wings. Time to run, then.

Except running on snow was a lot easier said than done. And those birds were _fast_. Sam briefly considered flying, but that would not end well. Meanwhile, Bucky was trying to use his metal arm as a shield and shoot seagulls at the same time. It might have even worked if there hadn't been so goddamn many of them.

"We need cover!" Bucky shouted.

"On it!"

He'd already spotted a more or less secluded place among the trees nearby. It wasn't great, but the thick branches might keep the gulls away for a little while and give them time to come up with a better plan. _If_ they could get there, which was looking more and more difficult by the second. It was just his life, Sam thought, getting attacked by HYDRA seagulls just a couple of hours before backup arrived.

But then, all of a sudden, the entire flock flew _past_ them and far away. It was too good to be true. Sam knew this even before Bucky grabbed his arm to make him turn around.

Three black rubber boats full of HYDRA goons were approaching the beach, too fast to even think they had a chance of getting away in time. And that wasn't even the worst part. The boats were surrounding a large, dark shadow on the water - one that suddenly sprouted a long neck and a huge dinosaur head.

Ah. That's what he got for joking about it.

"Well," he said, "we're screwed."

* * *

There wasn't time to come up with a plan before the boats reached the shore. There wasn't even time to run. All they could do was put up a good fight and hope they got lucky. Maybe backup would arrive hours earlier than they expected, wouldn't that be nice. He risked a glance at Bucky, who looked like he was about to speak. Probably to say something that Sam couldn't deal with right now, so he cut it short. 

"Don't you _dare_ say you told me so."

Bucky laughed even as he readied his guns and, all right, at least that much was a good thing.

"I'd love to be wrong right now," he said. "Aim for the boats?"

"Best plan we've got," Sam agreed.

And that was it. They raised their weapons and ran for the shore before the boats could beat them there.

After that, it was hard to keep track of exactly what was going on. Sam took flight and kept his strategy simple: shoot the bad guys, avoid shooting Bucky, and try his best not to get shot himself. And, of course, stay out of reach from the huge lake monster. That was the difficult part.

It moved pretty damn fast for a creature its size, and it was erratic. Even staying as close as possible to the shore didn't guarantee avoiding its long neck. Soon enough, Sam got annoyed enough that he just sent Redwing to move in random patterns around it and hopefully keep it distracted. It seemed to work, at least for a while. The monster started twisting and turning, as if it was trying to bat away a mosquito. The downside was that now it was rocking the boats around it even more. It was getting harder to aim properly.

Knee-deep in the water, Bucky still managed to hit one of the boats' motor and blow it. Of course, that meant that all the mooks in the boat were now moving freely and very angry. They were slow until they reached somewhere shallow enough to stand, and Sam got rid of several of them before that, but he could only spare a few seconds. He was very outnumbered himself. Bucky would have to manage.

Then the feedback from Redwing fizzled out all of a sudden. Sam turned around right in time to see the drone falling, probably hit by the creature, and dove to catch him. He did manage to get Redwing before he sunk into the lake, but the relief didn't last long. He got his own wing shot in the process. It didn't just stop working: with the wind and his current position, it hit his arm and most of his left side. He cursed and braced himself for the fall.

Hitting the water was bad, but he was ready for that. The real nasty surprise was the _cold_. He could feel his breath catch from the shock. He needed to swim up, he managed to think through it all. He needed to do it _now_ or he never would. It took a whole lot of effort, especially with the weight he was carrying, but desperation worked its magic. He kicked until he reached the surface and then used his good arm to hold onto the closest thing he could find. As soon as he'd done that, he realized it was one of the HYDRA boats.

Well, shit.

It took about half a second for one of the goons to notice him. But before the guy could do anything about it, the monster reached down to pick him up and eat him. Just like that.

"Holy _fuck_!" Sam shouted, but it got drowned out in the confusion. The rest of the mooks were screaming and either trying to shoot the creature or to get off the boat, or both at the same time. 

" _Down!_ " Bucky yelled from somewhere behind him.

He ducked just in time to see the few remaining mooks fall down like flies. Then he realized the third boat was approaching. For a moment, he was sure that it was even more trouble coming his way. But no, he realized, it was just Bucky. He had been busy while Sam was distracted by trying to stay alive, then. As soon as he was close enough, Bucky grabbed him to get him on the boat, and then immediately sped up again.

"You okay?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to make sure the monster wasn't chasing them.

Sam took a moment to reply. He just lay there a few seconds, still panting. He realized, a little dazed, that he was still holding Redwing against his chest with his injured arm, thoroughly soaked and useless but perhaps fixable.

"In one piece, yeah," he said at last. Just with a sprained arm, if it wasn't outright broken. Probably headed for hypothermia. But he could wait until they were out of reach from this mess - it wasn't as if he had much of a choice, anyway. "Let's get out of here."

He didn't have to insist. Bucky somehow managed to make the boat go even faster. They had to talk, Sam thought. They had to talk about a lot of things. The way the creature had gone right for that HYDRA guy instead of him, he was sure that was important. But he couldn't put his finger on why. And there was... other stuff. He wasn't sure what. It was getting hard to focus on anything that wasn't the pain in his arm. Or all over him, really.

He thought he heard Bucky calling his name, panicked and distant, and then everything went dark.


	8. Chapter 8

The first thing Sam noticed when he regained consciousness was that everything hurt. Right. No surprises there. The second was that he was _warm_ , and that made less sense. He made the effort to open his eyes so he could figure out what was going on.

He was lying down on the ground so he couldn't see much, really. Mostly trees. Bucky had managed to get the boat somewhere safe and drag him into the woods, but other than that, he had no idea of how far they'd got or if they were anywhere close to their rendezvous point. But the sun was very high now. They had missed their meeting anyway.

As for the warmth, there were several things going on that explained it. He was wearing a dry thermal shirt that was a little too loose on him. It had to be one of the inner layers Bucky had been wearing, since his own clothes were soaked. Although maybe not as much now, since they were hanging from a few branches next to a small fire - reason for warmth number two. 

Reason number three was that Bucky was wrapped around him like a koala. That was a thing. He must have noticed him stir, too, because he immediately loosened up a little.

"Hey. You're awake."

"Hey," Sam replied. His voice was hoarser than he'd expected. "Thanks."

"You okay?"

"I think so. Could use some water."

"Sure." 

Bucky let go of him to go get one of their water bottles, and Sam couldn't help but curl up on himself a little more at that temperature change. He did appreciate having something to drink, though. Besides, Bucky helped him sit up and then stayed close so Sam could lean on him, which was nice.

"You're good at this," he said, almost as a reflex, and immediately regretted it. Great job reminding him of the good old days. He must have done this kind of stuff for Steve all the time. 

"Used to be a big brother, once."

Sam winced. Right. That was even worse.

"Sorry," he sighed. "Didn't think--"

"Obviously," Bucky interrupted him, and of course he wasn't talking about that slip of the tongue. "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

"Because it had only just happened and we were already getting away, come on. When did you want me to bring it up?"

Bucky made an indistinct grunting sound, but he didn't have an actual answer. For their standards, that was basically admitting Sam was right. Still, he didn't have the energy to feel smug about it, given the rest of their situation.

"So," he said. "How bad is it? Any contact with our backup at all?"

"Nothing. I tried to get us to the rendezvous point, but HYDRA was on the way. I had to change route. And..." Bucky paused for a second, almost as if he was embarrassed. "The radio was on one of the backpacks, and the backpacks are still on that beach. Sorry. We've only got what we had on us."

"Hey, it's lucky enough we managed to get out at all," said Sam. It wasn't just to make him feel better, either. They'd cut it real close back there. "We just need to figure out how to catch up with them."

"There aren't a lot of options. They could wait for us there, but that only makes sense for a few hours. Or they could head for the labs and hope we're doing the same. They have the location."

"Well, it's been a long time now. We need to get the island."

"After your clothes dry," Bucky replied. "And we need to do something about your arm."

Sam almost wanted to protest, just out of principle, but it would only be wasting time. It wasn't as if he had _other_ clothes. As for his arm, he attempted to move it a little, and grimaced at the sharp pain. At least it wasn't his dominant arm, that had to count for something.

"Still hurts like hell, but I don't think it's broken. We could bind it just in case."

"Okay."

Bucky removed a scarf he was wearing somewhere under his jacket (how many layers did he have, anyway?) and started wrapping it tightly around his arm. There wasn't a lot Sam could do in the meantime, which left him stuck with talking. This was as good a time as any to bring up a not so small detail that had been bothering him.

"You know, that lake monster thing. I don't think it's under their control," he said. "It ate one of their guys."

"Yeah. I saw that," Bucky agreed. "We're not too late yet."

"To _stop_ them," Sam added pointedly. "We're not too late to stop their plan of controlling a giant monster. Please tell me that's what you were going to say."

Of course, he never had any luck with these things.

"We have to help it."

"Buck--"

"We _have_ to."

"That's not a dog you can train, it's a-- it's a freaking dinosaur, Barnes."

"It's not hurting anyone," Bucky insisted. " _Yet_. So, we have to help."

"What we have to do is stop HYDRA from using it. I'm not sure that means we can keep it safe." Sam's own words sounded so familiar to him that he almost winced again. "It's not a person," he added, and he was reassuring himself as much as Bucky.

"I know. I don't care." He tied the end of the scarf around Sam's arm, and that last tug was maybe a little too forceful. "Look, I just-- We need to at least try."

"You're too soft for your own good," Sam sighed. "Which, for the record, is a really weird thing to say to the Winter Soldier."

Bucky looked at him with a lopsided smile. Damn, he'd caught on already.

"That means you're helping?"

"All I'm saying is that I'll try to aim for the bad guys and not for your giant pet, okay."

"Good enough for me," Bucky said, and he sounded like he meant it.

* * *

There was only a short walk from where they'd been hiding to the beach. The boat was still there, and given the way their day was going Sam decided to count that as good news. Soon enough they were already headed for the island, a small spot in the distance for now. They probably had an hour or so of sailing ahead. 

Bucky seemed content to spend that time in silence. It would have been comfortable silence, too, in normal circumstances. But things had been... _intense_ lately, and Sam had too much on his mind. Some of those things were the kind that he couldn't bring up right now. Sure, there was the fact that he was already regretting that he'd agreed to stay casual even less than a day after it had come up, and they'd have to talk about that at some point. When they were both calmer and Sam could be certain that this sudden realization wasn't just a side effect of almost dying. In any case, this was a terrible time to drop that particular bomb.

Better focus on the stuff that was relevant at the moment.

"You know," he said, "since we're about to go knock on HYDRA's door and everything, this might be a good time to come clean about what got you so worked up when you watched those videos."

"I told you already. There was a guy from DC."

"Yeah, that's not an answer. I'm not asking for details," he quickly added. "But intel tends to help."

Bucky rolled his eyes at him, but he didn't seem bothered by the question. He even stopped to think for a moment before replying.

"The thing is, I don't actually know that much. Just that he was part of the science crew. I don't think I even got his name," he said. "He's probably there to keep the animals under control."

That sure was an implication to drop casually like that. Sam's face must have betrayed him, because Bucky frowned at him.

"Look, I can do this," he assured him. "It just-- it caught me by surprise, the other day. But I'm fine now."

"If you're sure," Sam conceded. Problem was, now he wasn't so certain of how he'd react to that asshole himself.

One thing at a time, he reminded himself. First they needed to get to the island. Then to the labs themselves, somehow, and that was going to be more difficult. He really wished Redwing was functional. Or that they at least had their old-fashioned paper maps, but those were lost along with the backpacks. They were going to have to improvise.

The rest of their short trip was uneventful. No more HYDRA mooks, and no lake monster either. They looked for a more or less decent spot to leave the boat, which was harder than it sounded like: apart from the area around the pier, which they were trying to avoid, a lot of the shore was abrupt rock. Eventually they found a place where they could at least disembark, even though there was barely a beach. From there, they'd have to make their way through pathless woods and hope for the best.

"Ready?" Sam asked.

There was a lot loaded in that question, but Bucky seemed to get it. He nodded with a perfectly blank face.

"Let's go."

* * *

It was just Sam's luck that they had to walk on such a difficult terrain when he had barely recovered from this morning. He could do it - he'd been through a lot worse and adrenaline worked wonders - but it was still annoying. Bucky had slowed his own pace considerably to match his, even though he at least had the common sense not to say anything about it. And Sam might be proud, but he wasn't stupid enough to overexert himself. They would still have to fight once they got to the labs. Better to save his strength as much as he could. 

He could still glare at the tree branches and the snow as they made their way through them, at least.

After what felt like way too long but was probably no more than half an hour or so, they reached the edge of the forest. It was very abrupt, clearly man-made. There was an area of what must be tall grass under all that snow, and then, right on front of them, one of the old buildings where HYDRA had its labs. Out of pure chance, they'd managed to reach one of its sides and not the front, so there were no goons staring at them for now. But as soon as they left the cover of the trees they'd have no way to hide at all. Which meant they had to wait for the right moment and have something that at least resembled a plan.

Sam turned towards Bucky to bring that up, and found him already staring at him. Bucky startled like a deer in headlights. Not a good look on the Winter Soldier.

"Buck?"

"I'm fine," he replied, a bit too quickly. Sam raised his eyebrows at him, and Bucky sighed. "I'm _fine_. Honest."

"Really. Because you kinda looked like you were going to say something."

"It can wait."

"Dude, if you're compromised, you've gotta--"

"What? No! It's not about the mission, I'm not stupid." He paused for a moment, biting his lip. "Look, I know I'm... not the most open guy. But if it was anything relevant to the mission, I would tell you. You have to know that."

"I do know that," Sam admitted. He relaxed a little, too. He'd seen Bucky when he was about to lose his cool, and this was not it. "Guess I'm kind of on edge too."

"Understandable," Bucky agreed, tilting his head, "given we're about to take down a whole lab just the two of us. Where the hell is that backup? They shoud be here by now."

"Maybe they're being stealthy," he said, although he didn't want to get his hopes up. "Only one way to find out, anyway. We have to get in. _Without_ just charging through the front door like idiots," he added.

Bucky rolled his eyes at him.

"Good thing you brought a sniper, then." Sure enough, he immediately went back to serious mission mode after that. One of these days Sam was going to get whiplash from it. "It can't be heavily guarded. It's remote already, and they've lost a bunch of men this morning. There won't be more than two, _maybe_ three guys at the entrance. All I need is the right angle. Once we're inside, though, that's when we'll have to improvise."

"True," said Sam. "Still the best plan we've had all week."

With only a small, lopsided grin for an answer, Bucky disappeared back into the woods to do his part of the job. Sam knew better than to follow him while he worked. If everything went well, he wouldn't have to wait long anyway. He took the chance to check his guns and gear, making sure that everything was in order. He was only just done with that when Bucky showed up again. He wasn't even bothering to stay under the cover of the trees, and instead just waved at Sam from near the building. No problems there, then.

Sam joined him and they walked in silence around the corner of the building. They slipped past the two bodies near the entrance and into a hall. It was too wide and empty to provide any kind of cover, so they moved slowly, with their guns ready. Soon enough they reached a closed door. There were muffled sounds coming from behind it - voices and the clutter of instruments, but nothing too creepy. It was probably one of the boring kind of labs like they one they'd seen on their videos, and not where actually did... whatever it _was_ they did to those unlucky animals. He and Bucky exchanged a look, and then Bucky kicked the door open.

There was a short moment of shocked silence. Then everyone started yelling at the same time.

A lot of people tried to run away in the confusion. They didn't go far; there was only one entrance and they were still covering it, so all the wannabe runaways ended up circling back to the far end of the room once they realized it was the only way to more or less stay away from trouble. Except for a couple of guards that they quickly immobilized, nobody else put up a fight. It was almost anticlimactic. Just a bunch of scientists cowering behind their work tables. _Evil_ scientists, though, so Sam didn't feel particularly bad about scaring them.

Bucky took the guards' weapons and radios, all the while doing his usual silent and terrifying act. Sam started to move from table to table, gathering everyone's notes and laptops. The files they had originally come to look for weren't going to be there, of course. Those were from a much older project. But they could make sure to find out as much as possible about _this_ one. Luckily, they'd burst into the room so fast that the scientists hadn't had the time to hide anything. It was all still lying around and up for the grabbing.

Then he caught a suspicious movement out the corner of his eye. Someone in the back of the room was trying to grab his notes -- no, not just _someone_. Of course it was that bow tied asshole, because this day could still get worse. Sam hadn't even noticed he was there, in the initial confusion. And now Bucky had seen him first. He had a gun pointed at the guy's head before Sam could even react.

"Drop that," Bucky said.

Bow Tie did as he was told, because he had a survival instinct. But then he had to go and open his mouth.

"You wouldn't," he breathed. "I- I helped you. You know it could have been much worse."

Damn. This couldn't end well. As much as they both hated him, if this guy was in charge then he had too much intel to risk on a spur of the moment reaction. For an agonizingly long moment, Bucky didn't do anything - didn't shoot, didn't reply, but also didn't move away. Sam was about to try to get his attention when Bow Tie decided he still had things to say.

"You could even come b--"

Bucky punched him right in the face before he could finish that amazingly stupid sentence. He'd held back; by now, Sam knew his fighting well enough to tell. The guy would wake up with one hell of a concussion and a broken nose, but he _would_ wake up.

Then again, all those other scientists in the room didn't need to know that. Bucky didn't even have to say a word after that, and everyone was suddenly very cooperative. They tied them up with whatever they had at hand - cables from the computers, mostly - and kept them both separate from each other and away from anything that looked even the slightest bit like a tool or weapon. HYDRA could get creepily creative when it came to withholding information. In fact, Sam didn't like the idea of leaving them alone at all, but they had no choice. It was just the two of them and they still needed to check the rest of the buildings. He'd have to hope this worked until backup arrived, then they might be able to split up.

They picked up the notes and the computers that Sam had been separating and finally left the room. Nobody could do anything about it but glare at them and maybe grumble a bit. Some guy was halfway through _Hail--_ when Bucky slammed the door shut. Good. Sam didn't feel like hearing that either.

"Are you okay?" he asked as soon as they were alone. Bucky didn't look at him, all of a sudden very focused on putting down all those laptops on the floor.

"I told you I wouldn't risk the mission."

"I know, and you didn't. That's not what I asked," he insisted. "Are you _okay_?"

"No," Bucky admitted, after a moment of silence. "But we don't have time for that."

Sam really wished he could argue with that, but it was the truth. He held back a sigh and nodded. They both knew he'd insist later, anyway. When they didn't have more urgent things to worry about.

"I hate leaving all this here," he said instead, staring at the heavy piles in front of them. But there was no way they could carry it all with them _and_ fight.

"We'll just have to hurry," Bucky replied. "This building's clear. We need to get to the others before anyone else gets here."

Easier said than done, but it really was the only way. Before they could move on, though, one of the radios they'd taken from the guards started receiving a transmission - a quick call for help, and then white noise. _Finally_.

"Well," he said, "there's our backup."


	9. Chapter 9

The second lab was nearby and, more importantly, there was a clean path to get from one to the other. It took them just a few minutes to reach the larger building, a huge block of cement with its doors already burst open. Sam still expected to hear horrible animal noises any time now, so it was a relief when it was just the usual fighting stuff. The building itself was similar to the previous one, except instead of a lab with worktables and the like, there were a lot of open, empty cages. And in the free space between them, there was Nat, doing a great job of kicking HYDRA ass as usual.

"About time," she said, barely turning to look at them. 

Sam skipped the comment about how _they_ weren't the ones who were super late and joined in the punching. It didn't take long to finish the fight now that all three of them were there. Even though these were actual guards, they were still outmatched. Just like before, they tied everyone up, picked up all the paperwork they could find and moved on. Except this time they could go and leave everything safe in the Quinjet.

"So, those empty cages," Sam asked while they were on the way. "What was in there and how much should we worry?"

"Not that much. There were a couple of mountain lions. Still normal," she added when she saw their expressions. "They hadn't been experimented on yet. Thor went to take them back into the forest."

"Thor, huh?" A couple of days earlier, Sam would've called that overkill, but now it was great news. "Good call. The lake creature's real."

"We're not fighting it," Bucky said, his tone final. "We've been over this."

"You don't want fight the HYDRA monster?" Nat asked.

"It's not HYDRA. And it saved Sam's life."

Nat looked from one to the other, eyebrows raised. Sam sighed.

"It kinda did," he admitted. "It's complicated."

They didn't have time to go into detail at the moment, though. The Quinjet was waiting for them on the beach, in one of the few places of the coast that was wide enough to accommodate it. Steve was already there, carrying his own ridiculously big stack of old files.

"You're all right!" he said, and Sam had the feeling that he would've been attacked by a rib-breaking hug if Steve's arms had been free. "What happened to you guys?"

Even though they tried to tell the story of the past couple of days as quickly as possible, it still took quite some time. Apparently the whole sudden lake monster thing raised a lot of questions, none of which they had any real answers for. Well, except for that part where HYDRA hadn't managed to capture it yet. That seemed pretty clear. As for where the backup team had been, that was just about what they'd figured. After waiting for several hours at the rendezvous point and then finding their abandoned backpacks nearby, they'd ended up flying to the island. They'd just started their punching people tour in a different building, which explained why it'd taken them so long to meet up.

In any case, things were looking better now. All of the information was recovered, they just needed to go get what they'd left at the first lab. The bad guys were immobilized until they could get them to the authorities. Sam took off his damaged gear and left the deactivated Redwing in the Quinjet, safe until he could get fixed. He even had the time to sit down and grab a painkiller while they discussed their next move.

"So, what now?" he asked. "Just wait until someone comes get all these jerks?"

"That's right," said Steve. "Well, until they get them off the island, at least. Then it gets more complicated."

"What do you mean?"

"These people are from all over the place. Only a few are local. From what we could tell, most of them came from-- older projects."

Bucky interrupted him with a snort.

"You don't have to walk on eggshells, Rogers. We kind of figured out that one already."

"... right. Sorry."

"It wasn't just your old friends, anyway," said Nat. "What was left of Strucker's team is here too."

"What, they finally realized messing with people backfires?" Sam said. "Took them a while. And they're not getting very far with animals either."

"And now, they will not get anywhere at all," he heard Thor say from somewhere behind him. Sam turned to see him walk up to them, looking very pleased with himself, so apparently the whole thing with the mountain lions had gone well. He gave Sam a friendly pat on the back that almost made him wish for another painkiller. "What is this I hear about a lake creature?"

" _Friendly_ lake creature," Bucky insisted.

"Even better! I think I'd like to meet this beast."

And then, of course, the universe provided.

* * *

Turned out the mission wasn't quite as over as they'd thought. Once again, they heard the noise of motors coming from the lake.

Not that this was anything to worry about. The boats were fast but still some way away, and there were only two, which meant it was the five of them against a handful of leftover HYDRA mooks. Even with Sam grounded, this wasn't going to be a problem at all. Everyone got their weapons ready and waited until the bad guys reached the beach - except that never happened. As if it had been waiting just to steal their moment, the lake creature's head emerged right between the boats and it sent them both flying with its strong neck.

Bucky's _I told you guys!_ was almost as loud as Thor's triumphant yell. It was kind of adorable. At least until he got back into fight mode, but then again, they all did. They made quick work of the few goons who managed to make it to the shore.

But the truly weird thing was, the creature didn't leave right away. It lingered for a moment, almost as if it wanted to make sure that they'd won, and only then turned around and sunk into the water.

"I know," Nat said before Bucky could even open his mouth. "You told us."

"I did," he replied, and Sam couldn't blame him for sounding a bit smug. "And now we're going to leave it alone."

No one had a reason to argue against that. If it had been around for who knew how long and never hurt anyone, there was no point in bothering it, really. Or maybe Sam was just getting soft. He wasn't sure.

He _was_ sure about one thing, though: after the really long day (hell, the really long week) he'd had, he deserved to be a little selfish for a change. The others could take care of dealing with the files and tied-up goons they'd left all over the island. He gave Steve a heads up and went into the Quinjet, looking for the simple pleasures of a comfortable seat and a bottle of cold water. It didn't take long until Bucky joined him.

"Hey," he said as he sat down next to him. Awfully close, not that Sam was going to complain about it. "You okay?"

"I'll live. I just need some rest."

"Well, looks like we're finally getting some of that."

"Finally." Sam paused, then decided he might as well get it over with. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Promise," he added, when he saw Sam's raised eyebrows. "Look, I know it wasn't my greatest moment, but I think I handled that pretty well all things considered. I feel better now."

"Punching people in the face does that."

Bucky laughed - and it was natural enough that Sam did believe him about being fine - but didn't say anything. They stayed in comfortable silence for a while. In the meantime, Sam tried to figure out how to word his next point the right way. 

"We do need to have a real conversation, you know. When we get some privacy."

That did get Bucky to become a little more serious. At least he didn't immediately start moping, which was a good sign. 

"Yeah, I figured as much," he admitted. "But not right now?"

"Not right now," Sam agreed.

He grinned at that, and Sam couldn't help himself. He just _had_ to kiss that stupid smile. Things were about to get a little too handsy for the Quinjet when they heard steps approaching.

"Wow," said Steve, barely giving them time to separate themselves. "Why am I always the last to find out about these things?"

"Uh. You're actually the first," Sam told him. "This is... new."

"Very new," Bucky agreed. His hand was still on Sam's, who could practically feel Steve's gaze zeroing in on that with eagle-like precision. He looked like his face was going to split open from smiling so much.

"I'm happy for you guys. Really." Then, before either of them could reply, he added: "You should stay a while."

Sam stared at him for a long moment.

"Are you offering us vacation time? Because I don't think the Avengers work that way."

"We'll handwave something," Steve said, with a literal handwave and everything. "Seriously, though. You guys finished your mission, and you had a pretty rough week. We can handle the boring parts from here."

"Yeah, but--"

" _Yes_ ," Bucky interrupted him. "We'll take it."

Sam _could_ have argued, he supposed. But he found that he didn't really want to. Bucky was holding his hand, and Steve was doing his Very Convincing Captain America Smile routine, and what the hell. He could use the rest. 

Sometimes, it didn't hurt to just go with the flow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the lake creature and the mountain lions are accounted for, but you might be wondering: what happened to the HYDRA seagulls? Well, I like to think they're still out there somewhere, being indistinguishable from all the regular seagulls who are _also_ complete assholes.


	10. Chapter 10

This time, they stayed at a nicer hotel, since they didn't have to keep up their ruse about being backpackers. They had a shower that didn't run out of hot water in two seconds, a mini bar full of tasty snacks, and a good view of the lake. It was a little weird to know there was a huge monster in there somewhere, but hey. It was still pretty. But Sam's favorite part of the whole thing was that they had no reason to get a room with twin beds anymore. He certainly planned to get his money's worth from that bed.

That proved to be an unrealistic expectation, though, since he was still aching all over from his fall. No marathon athletic sex for the time being. That said, gentle sex once in a while was still an option, so he wasn't about to complain. And Bucky, now that he had relaxed, was gentle about _everything_. He wasn't overbearing either, since he wasn't worried anymore. Just... nice. Sam had to admit it felt good to have someone take care of him for a change. He hadn't let his guard down like this in a long time.

Still, they had to go out and get some fresh air every once in a while, even if they'd had more than enough of the great outdoors. It was a nice place, after all, and now they could do all the touristy stuff they wanted to without any guilt or rush.

"Hey, wanna do something tonight?" Sam asked one afternoon, in the middle of getting a shoulder massage. "We've been indoors too long."

Bucky made a humming noise, thoughtful.

"We could go to one of those beer places."

"A brewery, really? Does alcohol even work on you?"

"Well, no, but..." Bucky paused for a second. It was tempting to turn his neck to see his expression, but Sam held still for now. "Look, don't laugh. It's just... it sounds like something normal people do. I'd like that."

"Why would I laugh at that? We could use some normal right now."

Besides, it was more sad than funny in any case. Not that he'd say that aloud. No need to get Bucky in a mood when things were going so well. They'd had a good time together, these past few days, and now he couldn't blame the adrenaline of life-or-death situations for the way he felt. It was all the small, silly things. Just Bucky rolling his eyes at his jokes, writing in his little notebook when he thought Sam was still asleep, his face lighting up when he tried a new fruit jam during breakfast. He had to admit to himself that he was pretty much doomed.

Then Bucky leaned forwards to kiss the back of his neck, and that was when Sam made his choice.

Sure, he couldn't control the general weirdness in their lives. That came with their day job. What he _could_ do was provide a bit of normalcy. Hell, he wanted to. He only had to stop acting dumb about this. If it turned out that Bucky still wanted nothing serious-- tough luck, he supposed. But he had to at least ask. All he needed to do now was wait for the right moment to bring it up.

* * *

The right moment, as it turned out, happened only a few hours later. They were walking down the windy promenade on their way to the brewery. It wasn't the shortest path, but it had a pleasant view and they were in no hurry. Although it was already evening, it was still much too early for the local people to be out for dinner, so there was almost no one else around. 

It was now or never.

"Hey," he said. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Mm. We never had that talk, did we?" Bucky sighed. Then, without any transition, he added: "I lied."

Well. _That_ wasn't Sam had expected. He stopped in his tracks, surprised. Bucky did the same, but he didn't look at him. He just stared straight ahead, hands in his pockets. Apparently he wasn't going to explain himself without more prodding.

"You lied? About what?"

"I don't want casual."

Sam had to take a moment to process that. It was great news, certainly. Just what he'd wanted to hear. The thing was, he had been hoping Bucky would say he'd _changed his mind_ about it. This didn't even make sense.

"But you're the one who said--" He didn't get to finish that sentence, because then it hit him. No, he realized, he had never said that was what he wanted. He had just been really vague and then didn't deny what Sam interpreted from his half-truths. It was his turn to sigh, now. "Shit, man, you need to stop doing that."

Bucky at least had the decency to look apologetic, but he was looking at the floor and not at Sam when he replied.

"I mean, I-- I can do it. If that's what you want. I know I'm not the type you bring home to your mama, so. Better casual than nothing."

"It's not what I want, you idiot," Sam told him. "I was going along with _you_."

That made Bucky look up at him at last. He looked so genuinely surprised that Sam couldn't bring himself to be too angry at him.

"You-- really?"

"Yes, really. That's why I wanted to talk." He frowned a little. "Look, if we're going to do this, we need to be on the same page about this kind of stuff."

"But you _do_ want to do this," Bucky said. It was ridiculous, how much his face lit up at the idea. Sam tried very hard to keep frowning. It didn't really work.

"Dude, stop that. I'm trying to have a serious conversation here," he said. "I had this whole thing prepared about how we're too good for casual, and everything."

"Sorry," he replied. He didn't look sorry at all, but then he did become a little more serious. "I do want to get this right, you know. I'm just... a little out of practice. It's my first date in seventy years."

Sam couldn't help but grin, because it _was_ a date. A real one. He locked his arm with Bucky's and dragged him along.

"Well," he said, "you can start by buying me a beer."

Bucky's laugh, right then, was his favorite sound in the world.


End file.
